＂That puts it not unto the Touch, To win or lose it all＂: The Moral Metaphor of Witchcraft in John Buchan's Witch Wood

This essay explores how John Buchan uses a cultural gap between the disciplined church and the living-conditions of peasants in Woodilee to raise questions about the knowledge of evil and witchcraft in seventeenth-century Scotland. Published in 1927, the novel depicts how a young Presbyterian minister, David Sempill, witnesses the pretences and prejudices of three church elders. Set in the years during the English Civil War (from 1644 to 1646), the novel is concerned with major differences between the attitudes of King Charles I and the English Parliament towards the Presbyterian Church. The novel depicts how the seventeenth-century Scottish church interprets the concept of evil and convicts its members of witchcraft, focusing on the controversial relationship between nature and morality. This essay will explore how several of Buchan’s more negative politico-religious characters lead to the eventual banality of domestic evil within the Scottish church; furthermore, it will point out the ironic moral contrast between the speculations and deeds of the Church's Chief Elder Chasehope and the secular farmer Shillinglaw. This essay ultimately offers observations, on a somewhat more speculative level, in relation to the novel’s discourse concerning unorthodox, if not Christian, interpretations of evil, using manifestation of several convincing representatives of human nature. It questions whether witchcraft should be recognized as a phenomenon of the human impulse towards natural worship, or as a ritual with evil motive.

關鍵字

John Buchan ； Witch Wood ； witchcraft ； evil ； nature and morality

並列摘要

本論文旨在探討約翰．布肯如何以蘇格蘭十七世紀訓化的教堂和「巫地利」(Woodilee)村民生活間的文化落差為議題，進一步質疑傳統宗教對邪惡觀念與巫術的詮釋。出版於1927 年，《巫師森林》著眼於探討十七世紀中葉的英國內戰(起於西元1644 年至西元1646 年)，尤關注於英格蘭內戰時期查理王一世與國會之間的政教紛爭，敘述一年青長老教會(Presbyterian)的牧師大衛(David)如何見證其他三位較年長教會前輩的虛偽與偏見。。此小說敘述十七世紀蘇格蘭宗教如何詮釋邪惡的觀念與如何判決執行巫術者，尤著眼於自然與道德的爭議關係。本論文將討論布肯筆下的負面政教人物們如何製造蘇格蘭教會中的惡習。再則，本論文將進一步指出，教會首席長老「追望」(Chasehope)與世俗邊疆農夫「世令法」(Shillinglaw)間的言行落差與道德諷刺。本論文最後提出一些有關非傳統宗教詮釋邪惡的觀察，且這些觀察皆與此本小說中內蘊蘇格蘭宗教文化的改革有密切關係。值得質疑的是，巫術應該被認為是人類崇拜自然環境的本能現象？或者，巫術應該被視為一具有邪惡動機的神秘儀式?